These SAN consolidation options are all supported within the same modular Cisco MDS 9500 chassis.

Improving Scalability and Flexibility

Enterprise-class storage connectivity provides scalability of up to 528 ports in a single Cisco MDS Multilayer Director 9513 chassis. ANSI T11-based virtual SANs (VSANs) let you separate a large physical fabric into multiple, smaller virtual fabrics. Each fabric has its own set of fabric services, using hardware-based data and control plane isolation.

Extending Network Services

Services-oriented SANs extend any network service to any device, regardless of protocol, speed, vendor, or location. These network services include: